


everything's going swimmingly

by tsunamiroll



Series: solangelo auctober 2020 [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: AUctober, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, First Meetings, Jason Grace & Percy Jackson Bromance, M/M, One Shot, Sibling Love, Swimmer!Nico, Swimming, bc fight me but the big three kids are the BEST SIBLINGS, because what is a pjo fic if it doesn't have a jercy bromance, ok idk how to tag is it obvious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:07:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26822626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsunamiroll/pseuds/tsunamiroll
Summary: His jet black hair sparkled under the fluorescent lights and water dripped down his pale chest. Will watched in slow motion as Nico looked up into the stands and made eye contact with him.His heart thudded in his chest. His face felt like a dragon was breathing on it.Will wasscrewed.ORNico joins the swim team. Will is in love.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, background Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Series: solangelo auctober 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948210
Comments: 19
Kudos: 175
Collections: Solangelo Auctober 2020





	everything's going swimmingly

**Author's Note:**

> i finally know what people mean when they say this was meant to be a thousand words but it ran away from me.  
> DISCLAIMER: i know nothing about swimming, all of my swim info is from quick(ish) google searches and youtube videos of world records.
> 
> auctober prompt 4: sports/teams

Will _loved_ Saturdays. Saturdays were when Kayla had her meets, and Will loved to go and support his sister. Yes, he was absolutely the person in the stands making the most noise and waving an obnoxiously decorated sign. Yes, Kayla hated it when he did that. No, Will did not care.

There wasn’t much about highschool that was exciting other than this, anyway. Will was in his senior year, so his classes weren’t too hard, but he was still in enough APs that his GPA wouldn’t tank a considerable amount. He had friends, but they weren’t the party type, preferring to get together to study instead. It might make Will boring, but he genuinely enjoyed the quiet social life he had. 

That’s why these swim meets were great. He and his friends, Lou Ellen, Cecil would catch all of Kayla’s meets. Normally they would go to a library or the park afterwards, too, so it was a nice built in “relax time” in Will’s week.

In fact, he was on his way to pick up Lou and Cecil now. He had already dropped Kayla off at school, where she would take the bus with the rest of the swim team, so he was off to gather everyone and head to the stadium.

After twenty minutes, everyone was in the car. Lou Ellen was wearing face paint, with half of her face a bright yellow and the other half a deep blue: their school colors. Cecil had somehow escaped Lou Ellen’s paintbrush, but only barely. She was still trying to wrestle some paint on his face in the backseat as Will pulled out of her driveway.

“Just hold _still_ , you’re acting like I’m going to turn you into a pig.” Lou Ellen muttered, and Cecil dodged a dripping paintbrush.

“Hey, just don’t get any paint on my seats.” Will said, sending a warning glare to Lou Ellen through the rearview mirror. “My dad had a breakdown last time.”

Lou Ellen turned away from Cecil long enough to stick her tongue out, before once again attempting to paint Cecil’s face.

They arrived at the stadium in mostly one piece. He managed to find a parking spot close to the entrance. Cecil now had yellow and blue lines under his eyes, like a football player.

“Alright, out.” Will shooed a hand over his shoulder. Lou Ellen stuck her tongue out again before getting out of the car. Cecil relaxed for a moment after she left and shared a pleading look with Will. Will just smiled. 

“Go get em, tiger.” Will said and winked, making Cecil groan. Will smiled cheerfully and got out of the car.

He looked up and spotted the swim team’s bus pulling into the parking lot. It screeched to a stop in front of the entrance. People started to file out of the bus, each wearing an Olympus High swim jacket. Cecil got out of the car as Will watched all the swim team line up, and he waved at Kayla when she got out of the bus. She rolled her eyes at him, but waved back nonetheless. He was going to look away after that, but then Will saw who was behind her.

Will’s breath caught in his throat.

Now, Will wasn’t a fanboy or anything, but he wouldn’t say that Kayla was the _only_ reason he went to the swim meets. He was but a simple bisexual, alright, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see attractive girls and boys in _one place_ . Will had a pretty good idea of who was a part of the swim team because of his _ahem,_ people watching, and that’s why he was surprised when the boy who walked out after his sister was someone he didn’t recognize. 

The boy was short, almost shorter than Kayla. He had shaggy black hair that hung low on his neck, and he had an annoyed expression on his face. The source of his annoyance came when the next person to get off the bus cuffed the boy over the head and immediately caught him in a headlock. 

Will had to doubletake and then wipe his eyes before looking again because _yep_ that was _the_ Percy Jackson, putting this new kid in a headlock. Will’s eyes resembled saucers when _Jason Grace_ was the next person out of the bus and punched Percy in the shoulder before ruffling the new kid’s hair up.

“Yo, Will. Are we going in or?” Lou Ellen poked Will in the side. Will shoved her off, giving her a retaliatory poke. She squeaked and Cecil rolled his eyes, grabbing the both of them by the shoulders and pushing them towards the building.

Will stole a glance behind him and saw a small smile creeping on to the new boy’s face as Percy and Jason argued loudly about something. Will felt a blush rise on his cheeks before turning back around and walking into the building.

Will clapped as the first heat wrapped up. Kayla’s first event was after this one. She was competing in three of them: the 100 yard backstroke, the 200 yard backstroke, and the 400 medley relay. Her events were spaced out through the day, which was nice because she got to rest, but also she had to warm up anew each time.

Will watched as the next lineup of swimmers filed into the pool room. This was the second heat of the men’s 100 yard backstroke. He double checked his heatsheet and of course, Percy and Jason were both in this heat. The both of them competed in almost every other event; Will didn’t know how they weren’t supremely exhausted. 

All of them started stretching, and Will watched all the swimmers warm up. Again, he was but a simple bisexual. Shirtless guys? Not something he was going to pass up. 

“Stop drooling.” Lou Ellen said, but her eyes were fixed on the swimmers too.

Will tore his eyes away from the swimmers and stuck his tongue out at her. She stuck her tongue out at him and scrunched her face up. 

Not to be outdone, Will smushed his face with his hands and blew a raspberry at her. 

“Guys, they are about to start.” Cecil said. Lower, he added, “I can’t believe you two are older than me.”

Will gasped. “I heard that! Take that back, or I’m not driving you home.”

“Shhhh!” Cecil waved a hand in Will’s direction, and at the right time too. The starting beep sounded, and all the swimmers were off. Immediately Jason and Percy were in the lead. It was already a given that they would be first and second; the only competition here was for third place. And someone in lane five was giving a pretty good fight for the spot. 

Will squinted at his heat sheet, tracing down the line to find lane five.

“Aha!” Will exclaimed. _Lane Five: Nico di Angelo_ . _Team: OHS. Seed time: 1:43.66._ Will blinked. That was a… fast seed time. Percy and Jason sandwiched Nico, with seed times of 1:41.34 and 1:42.83 respectively. Those scores were scarily close together.

Lou Elle made a noise next to him. Will looked back up, and his jaw fell open. The first lap had been completed, and three people surfaced: Percy, Jason and Nico. All three neck and neck. 

Up until the last lap, that tie stayed the same. Will was on the edge of his seat as the three of them approached their last lap. Will watched as Percy surfaced slightly ahead of Jason and Nico and put more distance between them as he swam. Jason and Nico were still too close to call, and Will bit his lip as Percy hit his pad, and then Jason and Nico at the same time.

His eyes flitted to the score screen and his jaw fell.

 _Lane 4 - Jason Grace - 1:42.90 - 3rd place_  
_Lane 5 - Nico di Angelo - 1:42.76 - 2nd place_ _  
_ Lane 6 - Percy Jackson - 1:40.68 - 1st place

The only sound in the stadium was the sound of water splashing. The stands were silent. Will looked between the scoreboard and the swimmers.

Nico ripped off his goggles and swim cap, and Will felt like a hole had opened in his stomach. It was the same guy from the bus. Jason and Percy had removed their goggles too, and were splashing water at each other, but Will could only see Nico. His jet black hair sparkled under the fluorescent lights, and Will watched in slow motion as Nico looked up into the stands and made eye contact with him.

His heart thudded in his chest. His face felt like a dragon was breathing on it. 

“So,” Cecil piped up. “Did everyone just see that?”

Will was _screwed._

-

“I said do your best for this meet, not completely decimate me!” Jason whined as they went back to the locker rooms. Percy was toweling off his hair as they walked. Nico didn’t know why, it was just going to get wet again. The amount of events he was in… Nico could never.

Nico shrugged at Jason. “You shouldn’t’ve said do my best, then.” Jason glared at Nico, but it melted away into a proud smile.

“Neeks, that was amazing!” Nico was almost bowled over by Reyna as they reached the locker rooms, Annabeth right next to her.

“You guys saw that?” Nico frowned, then looked at the clock above the locker room door. “Don’t you have an event right now?”

“And miss your first meet? Never.” Annabeth smiled, but followed Nico’s gaze to the clock. “We do have to go, though. Wish us luck!” Nico exhaled a laugh at his friends waving at them as they ran towards the pool room. 

“Hey that’s not fair, Annabeth missed _my_ first swim meet,” Percy pouted, and Nico stifled a snort. He looked ridiculous with his hair sticking up every which way and that abysmal expression on his face. Jason didn’t stifle his laughter at all, favoring elbowing Percy on his way into the locker room. 

Jason tossed over his shoulder. “You guys didn’t even _know each other_ at your first swim meet.”

Nico was about to enter the locker room too when someone tapped his shoulder. He blinked and turned around to face them, and had to grip the doorway when his knees gave out. 

Staring off to the side with almost a shy expression was _Will Solace_ . The Will Solace that Nico stared at during Biology. The Will Solace that Nico may or may not have stalked during freshman year. The Will Solace that didn’t know Nico _existed._

“Uh.” Nico said intelligently.

“Hey, you’re um. Nico, right?” Will said, shifting on his feet. “You did really good today.”

“Uh.” Nico said again, “How are you here?”

Will frowned at him, and Nico rushed to get out, “I mean, this place is for swimmers only, how did you get here?”

“Oh! My sister is on the team, I got her to sneak me in.” Will smiled sheepishly, a hand coming up to rub his neck. “But anyway, I came here to talk to you! You did really great today and I uh- was wondering if you would want to… go somewhere with me? Like a movie, or the mall, or I don’t know, it could be anything-”

Nico cut him off. “Are you- asking me on a date?” He felt his face heat up at those words.

Will nodded so fast Nico thought his head might fall off. “Yeah, if you want to.”

“Awesome!” Will smiled, and Nico felt like the sun itself was smiling at him. He pulled out his phone and offered it to Nico. “You can put your number in here, I’ll text you about it.”

Nico entered his number and gave the phone back, and as he did their hands brushed. Nico blushed and snatched his hand back. Nico stood and was suddenly aware of how he was still only wearing swim trunks and a towel hanging from his neck, and he was sure his blush now reached down his chest. 

“I, uh, have to go get ready so. I’ll see you later!” Nico rushed out, waving at Will before disappearing into the locker room. The door hit something hard, and he got in to see both Jason and Percy rubbing their noses. They saw Nico and sprang up their eyes alight with glee. Dread creeped up Nico’s back. The two of them stared at him for a moment, and Nico squirmed under their gaze. He got the terrifying feeling that they were planning something

“You got a _date_!” Percy cried, breaking the silence, clapping loudly, and Jason had his phone out, typing furiously. Percy took Nico into his arms, swaying with him, “My little boy is all grown up now!”

Nico squawked and kicked Percy in the shins, but Jason attacked him instead, hugging him close and saying, “Nico’s got a _date_ with a _cute boy_!”

Nico sighed and hung limply as the two ~~toddlers~~ teens passed him around, taking turns spouting threats and congratulations, but deep inside he was remembering blue eyes and a bright smile.

Yeah, Nico did have a date with a cute boy.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! i hope that made sense! leave me a kudos or a commet if you liked it :D  
> you can talk to me on my tumblr if you'd like to too, its tsunami-roll. thank you again, and hope you have a great day!


End file.
